1. Articles from USGBC Blog

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    1. Campaigning for Better Building Codes

      Explore USGBC Blog (Mar 23 2012) Green building

      Campaigning for Better Building Codes Matt Pearce Campaign Specialist U.S. Green Building Council Earlier this month, USGBC launched our seventh and final campaign of the 2012 Advocacy Campaign Agenda: Better Building Codes. In this campaign, USGBC is calling on its community to actively engage in the greening of state and local building codes. Building codes define a state or community’s minimum expectations for all buildings. As such, this campaign to build better, greener codes plays an important role in enabling market transformation towards a market norm of healthy, low-impact, responsible and efficient buildings and neighborhoods. USGBC and many of its partners have long ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   U.S. Green Building Council

    2. It Doesn't stop at the LEED Certification Plaque: Why Ongoing Building Performance Tracking Matters

      Explore USGBC Blog (Mar 14 2012) Green building , projects

      It Doesn't stop at the LEED Certification Plaque: Why Ongoing Building Performance Tracking Matters Kal Wellman Associate, LEED U.S. Green Building Council It has become widely accepted across the commercial real estate world that LEED certification has the potential to add value by presenting a number of benefits including higher rental yields, lower vacancy rates, reduced operating costs and improved employee productivity. The extraordinary growth of LEED over the past decade is clear evidence of this industry-wide understanding. Receiving the LEED plaque should not be the end of the process for building owners. The plaque symbolizes the beginning of a building performance journey, one where data is at the center of attention. Having ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   U.S. Green Building Council

    3. What LEED Means to Us

      Explore USGBC Blog (Feb 29 2012)

      What LEED Means to Us This entry is cross-posted from the Brewery Vivant blog. We recently received our LEED Silver (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification at Brewery Vivant and found out at the end of the process that we are the first commercial microbrewery in the United States to do so (or as Mayor Heartwell put it, the first in the galaxy). That is pretty cool. However, we did not go through this process just to have a marketing tool to talk about. We see this plaque that hangs on our wall as a symbol of the way we want to run our ... (Read Full Article)

    4. Obama Budget Charts Bold Course for Green Building Priorities

      Explore USGBC Blog (Feb 14 2012) Green building

      Obama Budget Charts Bold Course for Green Building Priorities Bryan Howard Legislative Director U.S. Green Building Council On Monday, President Obama released an ambitious $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2013 that seeks to pump billions of dollars into the economy through clean energy and infrastructure improvements, while seeking to eliminate existing incentives for oil and gas and ending tax cuts for those making more than $250,000. As part of the Better Buildings Initiative, a 10-year initiative to make non-residential build¬ings 20 percent more energy efficient, the budget aims to re-design the cur¬rent tax deduction for commercial buildings 179D to a credit, and change ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   U.S. Green Building Council

    5. Army to Congress: LEED Doesn’t Cost More

      Explore USGBC Blog (Feb 3 2012) Green building , conference

      Army to Congress: LEED Doesn’t Cost More The Army is still going for Gold and Platinum despite recent legislation calling a halt to LEED spending. The federal government has been one of the biggest supporters of LEED certification in the last few years, with the General Services Administration (GSA) requiring basic LEED certification for all federal buildings starting in 2003 and then upping that requirement to LEED Gold in 2010. The military has been on the cutting edge of green building from the beginning. The Navy adopted sustainable design principles before LEED even existed, as we reported way back in 1998. The Army embraced LEED in 2006 ... (Read Full Article)

    6. Top 10 States for LEED Green Buildings

      Explore USGBC Blog (Jan 19 2012) Green building , projects

      Ashley KatzMedia ManagerU.S. Green Building CouncilToday, USGBC released its top 10 list of states with the most LEED-certified building square footage per capita. The District of Columbia leads the nation, with more than 31 square feet of LEED-certified space per person in 2011, and Colorado is the leading state, with 2.74 square feet per person in 2011. Other top states include Illinois, Virginia and Washington, with 2.69, 2.42 and 2.18 square feet of LEED-certified space per person, respectively.See the full rankings below:1. District of Columbia - 31.50 sq. ft. per capita2. Colorado - 2 ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   U.S. Green Building Council

    7. The Promise of the Green Economy: Strengthening the Economy While Protecting the Environment

      Explore USGBC Blog (Jan 10 2012) Green building , conference

      The Promise of the Green Economy: Strengthening the Economy While Protecting the Environment Maggie ComstockAssociate, PolicyU.S. Green Building Council The author of an article posted yesterday on CNN couldn’t be further embedded in the spin zone he arguably says he’s trying to debunk. In his opening line, the author, Steve Hargreaves, wrote, “The tactic du jour for environmentalists trying to sell a skeptical public on tighter regulations is this: spin the thing as a job creator.”If you want to substantively get into a discussion on driving job creation, it won’t be long before you’re talking about green jobs. Green building is Exhibit A. In hundreds of communities ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   U.S. Green Building Council

    8. Seattle 2030 District: The NEXT Big Thing in Green Building

      Explore USGBC Blog (Dec 16 2011) Green building

      Brett PhillipsDirector of Sustainability, Unico PropertiesBoard Chairman, Seattle 2030 DistrictBrian GellerExecutive DirectorSeattle 2030 DistrictThe green building movement has made great strides in recent years, but it’s not enough. In order to put up a good fight against ever-increasing environmental and economic pressures, we need a united front of the public and private sector, and to approach issues at the city — or district — scale. District sustainability currently experiences the same limited level of awareness that individual green buildings did a decade ago, when the U.S. Green Building Council announced its first 12 LEED Certified projects, of which there are ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   U.S. Green Building Council

    9. Green Retrofits on the Rise: LEED for Existing Buildings Surpasses New Construction Projects, Echoes Industry Shift

      Explore USGBC Blog (Dec 12 2011) Green building , projects

      Doug GatlinVice President, LEEDU.S. Green Building CouncilThe U.S. landscape is covered by more than 60 billion square feet of existing buildings, many of them hogging inordinate amounts of resources and energy due to outdated infrastructure. The potential to green this building stock is vast, and more importantly, the potential is being realized: We announced last week that LEED-certified existing buildings are surpassing new construction projects by 15 million square feet, cumulatively. This news comes just one week after President Obama and former President Clinton announced that the federal government will invest $2 billion in energy efficiency, with an ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   U.S. Green Building Council

    10. Who Cares About Better Buildings? A Diverse Group of Companies Answer, “We Do!”

      Explore USGBC Blog (Nov 17 2011) Green building

      Who Cares About Better Buildings? A Diverse Group of Companies Answer, “We Do!” Lane BurtTechnical Policy DirectorU.S. Green Building CouncilAs a movement, we knew we had come a long way when President Obama announced the Better Buildings Initiative in February, establishing the goal of slashing energy consumption in commercial buildings 20 percent by 2020. Groups like USGBC, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Real Estate Roundtable (RER) applauded the plan. But articulating the goal and achieving it are two different things, and we all realize that so much of the initiative hinges on coordinating and communicating as we are pursuing building improvements and smart policy changes. That’s why we ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   U.S. Green Building Council